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“Beware
ad reps bearing gifts”
It is only a matter of time before
you are approached by an advertising rep with a “deal”.
It is always great to get a deal, but be careful because
the “deal” offered is often not in your best
interest. For example, print reps will often call with
an offer to run an “extra” ad with “no-cost” color,
or perhaps they will give you – at no extra cost
– larger space than you normally buy.
Should you take the offer? Probably not. It’s not
in your budget and there are probably a handful of competing
priorities that are more important. But even if you decide
to free up the funds, don’t just accept the first offer
from the rep.
Think instead about what you really want. It may be two
smaller ads – important if you need frequency more
than you need color, or perhaps you would prefer to go with
just two colors.
In short, buy additional space or time only when it makes
sense – and then set your own terms, as opposed to
accepting the first offer presented by a rep.
Time to
audit your ad buys
When we look at the ad buys of many companies, we often
see a couple of elephants wandering aimlessly– and
not much more. What that means is that the entire budget
was devoted to a couple of big, bloated media buys. There
is nothing wrong with big, provided you have sufficient budget
to run many big ads. Then you have big ads and frequency.
Big ads and low frequency are often unsuccessful because
they are not seen enough to prompt a response.
Bloated ads are great for the suppliers who create the ads.
They get rich on the added production values. The client
gets stuck with the bill and then has the added disappointment
of getting low response.
Chances are you don’t have the budget to go with big
ads and high frequency. So try this: challenge your agency
to produce a slimmed down ad that actually stands out because
it is slimmed down. Now you have a low-cost ad – not
a bloated ad – and you have more funds to run more
ads.
Better ads. More ads. And virtually no change in your budget.
Sounds good to us.
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